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Riots outside Paris after police claim an officer's alleged rape of a black man was an accident

13 Feb, 2017 9:29am

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Théo, a 22-year-old French youth worker whose last name has not been released, maintained that the injury - which required major surgery to repair - was inflicted intentionally and that he was the victim of a horrific sexual assault. Source: Al Jazeera

By the time Théo arrived at a French emergency room on February 2, he was covered in blood.

Doctors discovered that his primary injury had been caused by a police truncheon, one that had been forced inside the man's rectum during a violent encounter with multiple officers in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a suburb north of Paris.

Théo, a 22-year-old French youth worker whose last name has not been released, maintained that the injury - which required major surgery to repair - was inflicted intentionally and that he was the victim of a horrific sexual assault.

People march in the streets of Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris, France, holding a sign reading "Justice for Theo" during a protest. Photo / AP

More than a week later, after protests have roiled residents where the incident occurred, French investigators have reached an entirely different conclusion: The violent sodomy was accidental and occurred when the officer's expandable baton happened to slip into the victim's anus.

While noting that the violent encounter was "very serious," the investigation by France's national police force determined that the incident was "not a rape" because of the "unintentional character" of the penetration, according to Huffington Post's French edition.

Despite those conclusions, French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux announced yesterday that one officer faces aggravated rape charges and three others have been charged with aggravated assault, according to the Independent. The men deny the charges and have been suspended from the police force, the paper reported.

A peaceful demonstration protesting the alleged rape of a black youth by police has degenerated. Photo / AP

Théo maintains that the incident began after he witnessed an officer slap someone and approached a group of officers, according to Huffington Post. He claims that the group took him around a corner and attacked.

"I didn't try to run away. I told the officers, 'You've torn my bag,' to which they replied that they didn't give a damn," he said, Huffington Post reported. "They all tried to grab me. I asked them why they were doing this, but they just continued to throw insults at me."

"He told me to put my hands behind my back. They put handcuffs on me and then they told me to sit down," he added. "They sprayed tear gas in my face, and then I had a pain in my buttocks. My trousers were lowered. I was in serious pain."

During the violent encounter, Théo said, officers spit on him and called him such names such as "Negro" and "bitch."

Hollande's visit did little to quell the fury of rioters, who in recent nights have "aimed large fireworks at police and set fire to cars and garbage bins" in the "working-class region northeast of the French capital with a large minority population" known as Seine-Saint-Denis, according to the Associated Press. Between Wednesday night and Thursday morning alone, the AP reported, police arrested 26 people.

Théo and his family are urging the community to act peacefully.

"I would like to ask the residents of my neighbourhood to calm down," he told the French news station BFMTV. "I ask them to stop the hostilities because I love my city and I want to find it the way I left it."

"Violence is not the way to support me," he added. "Justice will do its job."

Yasser Louati, a French human rights and civil liberties activist, told Al Jazeera that the riots are fuelled by the fact that the police are now viewed "as an occupying force, not a force of protection for the weak and against crime."